The morning came quickly. Miu and Ray ate breakfast in silence and departed. The atmosphere was tense because they knew they would be putting their lives on the line from here on out. Both Miu and Ray agreed that it was of utmost importance for them to level as fast as possible.
They left the cave and immediately headed towards the stream. By this point, they were only about an hours walk away from it. Miu had been there a few times with her old pack, so she was able to effectively lead Ray there without too much hassle.
Upon reaching the stream, Ray set up a fire so that he could boil and filter between freshwater and Siltvelt. Ray was hoping that he would be able to make a paste to coat his dagger, making it more effective on more dangerous monsters. He wasn’t sure if this would be possible but intended to try it anyway.
Miu on the other hand spent the time scouting the area. She wanted to begin growing as a familiar as soon as possible and wanted to impress Ray. Even though they had formed a bond, she was worried that he might simply choose to abandon her if she wasn’t useful.
The day progressed well into the night without much incident. Ray was well underway on extracting the necessary ingredients. The hardest part turned out not to be extracting the Siltvelt, but rather, finding a way to turn it into a paste. Ray was never a botanist on earth and while he could use a mortar and pestle, he didn’t know which plants and items would work best.
Eventually, he found a fern like plant that had a thick liquid goo in its leaves. This seemed to work well. Ray made enough of the thick liquid combined with Siltvelt that he could apply to his weapon a good twenty or so times. He had no clue how long the substance would last on his blade, or if it would even work but trying something was better then doing nothing.
Ray had just finished applying the goo to his dagger when Miu came scampering into the camp. At first, Ray couldn’t even recognise her. She was covered in blood and heavily injured.
“Could you not hear me? We need to run! Now!”
“FUCK… are you ok?” Ray said out loud. He scooped what he could into his inventory and ran over to Miu. Ray scooped her into his arms right before she shrank and collapsed.
“Leave me and run, I’m as good as done for.”
She was losing blood fast and would clearly die if nothing was done. Ray noticed that her wounds consisted of small darts and weapon slashes across her body. Ray was infuriated. He moved her onto his shoulder right as a dart flew past his ear.
“FUCK OFF! THAT’S MY CAT YOU’RE ATTACKING!” Ray yelled.
There was no other response aside from more darts flying into the clearing. One hit his thigh.
[You are poisoned… Taking 1 health point of damage every 10 seconds]
Ray started running. He had no choice. He had no clue who or what was attacking him but it was clearly bad news. It wasn’t even one minute before he knew there was no escaping from the target. Their Agility was well higher then his.
Ray moved behind a tree and managed to catch a glimpse the pursuer. It was a fucking dark elf. Ray was absolutely enraged. He thought they were becoming his friends, only to be attacked like this. What’s more, there wasn’t just one, there were three.
Ray managed to get an identify on each of them.
Identify Used
Dark Elf – Rebel
Level 10
Unknown
Dark Elf – Rebel
Level 7
Unknown
Dark Elf – Rebel Assassin
Level 15
Unknown
[Congratulations. Identify has reached level 4]
“Shit” Ray muttered under his breath. He stood almost no chance here. The only thing he had going for him was a poisoned dagger. Nothing for it now.
“Who the fuck are you and why are you attacking me” Ray yelled out.
The elves stopped for a second when they realised Ray was speaking their language.
“Why should we talk to a filthy human corpse?”.
Another dart flew at Rays head. The assassin was using a blowgun. Ray managed to dodge back behind the tree. He pulled his dagger out and waited, listening for any movement. He probably only had one shot at this.
He knew it was unlikely he could match these elves in direct combat; however, his hope was that the poison was as potent as when he drank directly from the stream. If he can get a single decent stab, it would likely debilitate or kill the elf hit.
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Ray heard some hushed talking. He knew magic was a thing but at this point he wasn’t sure how potent it was. He was paranoid that even the talking was some kind of illusion magic. He further believed this was an illusion when he heard a small twig snap to his left. Ray sidled slightly to the right of the tree.
On pure instinct, Ray quickly stepped out the right side of the tree and stabbed forward. He was rewarded with the feeling of soft flesh being penetrated. Somehow, Ray had managed to stab one of the elves directly in the shoulder. Not a fatal wound, but definitely debilitating.
Ray removed the dagger and rushed forward. No point sticking in one spot while there were two enemies right on him. He knew he couldn’t get away but what he hoped for was a moment of hesitation or mistake for the other elves.
Ray heard a twang. He tried to dodge out of the way, but he couldn’t roll in case Miu fell off his shoulder. A bolt hit Ray smack in his butt cheek. The crossbow bolt wasn’t poisoned by hurt like all hell.
“Ahh FUCK… WHAT THE SHIT!”
The snickering from the elves quickly died when the one who that was stabbed collapsed and was having seizures. Since the other elves had stopped paying attention to him, he ran. If he didn’t use this chance, he wouldn’t make it back alive.
Ray didn’t know where to go. He wasn’t going to be able to go far. His butt was bleeding profusely. There was also no way that he’d be able to get the arrow out himself. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the enemy caught up to him.
Ray kept moving as far as he could go. Miu wasn’t doing well. He knew that she wouldn’t last much longer. In the end, even though he couldn’t trust the elves of the village anymore. He eventually found an extremely thick bush and covered Miu.
Ray snapped off the end of the bolt in his butt and placed it near the bush. He then smeared blood over the branches. He didn’t feel good about this but using Miu as bait to potentially finish the other 2 elves was his only remaining option. Ray took place in a different nearby bush and waited.
Even though it was only a short time, Ray felt like it had been forever. The 2 elves eventually appeared and slowly crept towards the bush that held Miu. He noticed the rebel raise their crossbow. It was now or never. Ray charged out of the bush. He charged straight at the rebel holding the crossbow.
The dark elf turned and let loose the bolt. TWANG!. The bolt ripped straight through Ray’s ear. Blood now pouring out of Rays head. He wouldn’t be denied, however. Ray was in melee range at this point. He slashed the dagger across the elf’s throat.
The elf had managed to move back enough that the cut was a shallow wound. Seemingly though, the Siltvelt poison did its job quickly. It seemed there wasn’t enough left on the dagger to kill the elf, however, there was definitely enough to knock him out.
Ray didn’t have time to deal a final blow as the assassin hit him in the side with his blowgun.
[You are poisoned, taking 3 health damage every 10 seconds]
“Normally I like to play with my opponents before finishing them off. But that blade of yours is dangerous. I’ll just make you a pincushion”
“Go to hell” Ray responded
Ray had no choice at this point. He charged straight at the assassin. Before he could even make it halfway, the assassins head came off. It was like watching a decapitation in a movie. The man that appeared behind the assassin was using two giant swords. They must have been almost as big as Ray himself.
Ray knew this man was no joke. Ray turned to try and run but the man simply appeared right in front of him and held out a vial of red liquid. Ray tried to turn but the man was constantly in his line of sight.
“Drink this if you want to live” the man said
“My cat first. If you’re really here to help, help her. She’s almost dead”
The man disappeared and a moment later he was carrying the unconscious cat. He grabbed a different vial and poured it over Miu, her wounds immediately closed. She didn’t regain consciousness but clearly looked a lot better.
“Now, drink”
Ray hesitantly grabbed the vial and drank its contents. As the liquid washed down his throat, he could feel the healing effects. He could even feel his ear slowly growing back. He even felt the bolt in his butt cheek come either disintegrate or be forcefully removed. He wasn’t sure but it hurt like hell while it was happening.
“Well, that’s convenient” Ray said once he was fully healed.
The mysterious stranger dropped Miu onto Ray’s shoulder, turned around and started walking away.
“Follow me” he said.
Ray was hesitant at first.
“That wasn’t a request” the mysterious stranger said.
Ray followed, but while doing so, opened his character sheet.
[Congratulations, your regeneration has worked overtime. You’re becoming more of a masochist… Vitality + 1]
[Congratulations, your ingenuity helped lead you to victory. Your cowardly stealth gave you the advantage… Agility, Dexterity and Intelligence +1]
Name:
Ray Atton
More Info +
Race:
Human-Error (F)
Level:
7 (F)
Stats
Strength
10
Dexterity
15
Agility
15
Body
14
Vitality
20
Intelligence
11
Mind
10
Luck
19
Unallocated Points
10
Titles
Outcast (Unique 1/1), Panther Cat Tamer (Unique 1/1)
Coins
Arkus System
297
[For bringing your first stat to level 20, you have gained the skill: Lifeline (Common - Passive) – Upon reaching 10% Health, instantly double your current Health]
Skills
Level
Cooldown
Mana Cost
Description
Dark Elf Communication (Common / Passive)
Max
N/A
N/A
Speak and read the Dark Elf language.
Identify (Common)
4
None
1
Activate to gather basic information about the target.
Lifeline (Common / Passive)
1
24 Hours
None
When 10% health is reached, double your current health.
The two walked first, to the body of each fallen elf. The mysterious stranger looted two of them whilst Ray looted the initial one he had killed, Ray even took the body, though he was grossed out to do so.
It turned out his looting and inventory worked a little bit differently to the ones on Arkus. He could store anything inside it without weight complications, though there was a maximum slot limit of 24. Items of the same effect, such as the bacon he was carrying would stack up to 24 single pieces as well, only taking a single slot. There was a size limit for about 30cm x 30cm to items but that didn’t seem to apply to corpses or weapons.
They then continued a fair distance before the mysterious man turned around and looked at Ray. This was the first time Ray had gotten a decent look at the man.
The mysterious stranger looked human. He was extremely tall, around 7 feet tall, looked to be somewhere in his late 50’s, with a rugged face, grey hair, and an extremely muscled frame. The man was wearing an outfit that made him look like an Australian biker gangster. In fact, now that Ray looked closely, his jacket had the word Comanchero written on it, though it was extremely faded.
“What the hell! Are you from earth?”
The mysterious stranger suddenly appeared in front of Ray and forcefully lifted him from the neck, choking him.
“What the hell do you know about earth?”